Project
Speak to the Eyes: Ceride-i Adliye 37-38-39
Statement
The cover of the August-September-October 1925 issue of “Ceride-i Adliye” (the Journal of Courthouse) hosts a double chart; one illustrating the amount of documents prepared by each of the city courthouses in Turkey, and the other illustrating the amount of these documents categorized under various legal topics and their prosecuting offices & people e.g. Homicide office, Commerce office, Magistrate etc. Although the visualization might not be one of the most aesthetic compositions issued by the journal, it provides an effective and functional form of notation. The designer A. Midhat makes a series of wise choices regarding the optimization of space and the accessibility of the data, which makes this cover worthy of more detailed examination.
The chart on the left shows the overview of documents per city with a bar chart in which the columns were merged. The elements are ordered in a double bell distribution. The chart is divided into two portions then juxtaposed and shifted on the axis of the ordinate. The reader can quickly locate the cities with higher and lower amounts of documents. An alphabetical order could have shortened the time of search for a specific city but could not have allowed such easy comparison of data. The chart on the right issues another bar chart with a top to bottom ordinate. The bars which show a value higher than 150 are cut and reversed in direction creating a worm-like shape. The bars are then classified by typology with a range of colours. This operation allows both the comparison between the data and the association of similar values. The total amount is not shown but can be calculated by addition and subtraction of the parts. The two charts are combined roughly as if they were prepared separately and fell on the same sheet by chance and express how the focus of the preparation of the cover was on the message more than the form. A broken line drawn between the charts separates them and firmly connects them to the outer border.
The juxtaposition of the portions and the slicing of the values in the two charts highlight the space optimization and clarity of information. Although a more complex visualization could offer a better visual impact, the information flow might not be as effective.
The only decorative element is the calligraphic headline that is in clear contrast with the sharpness of the two charts, but is still characterized by a similar richness.
The project has been developed after observing the original cover. It was considered essential to show the characteristics of the cover in the clearest way by building a hypothetical construction, starting by drawing the charts piece by piece. The animated visualization reveals the bars appearing next to each other on folded paper sheets. In order to show how the data has been compressed and reduced to fill the minimum amount of space possible when the charts are completed, the bars fall over to each other and merge, split and flip to achieve the final result.